Virat Kohli: The Modern-Day Run Machine

Kohli was born on November 5, 1988, in Delhi. His father, Prem Kohli, was a criminal lawyer and his mother, Saroj Kohli, is a housewife. In 1998, Kohli trained at the West Delhi Cricket Academy under coach Rajkumar Sharma...

- Renin Wilben

Team India’s Test captain Virat Kohli is renowned as one of the best batters to have ever played the game and arguably the finest batter of the current generation. Heading into the Centurion Test on Boxing Day against South Africa, he had featured in 97 Tests and had scored 7801 runs at an average of 50.65 and a best of 254 not out. In addition, he has 27 hundreds and many as fifties to his credit.

Kohli has amassed 12169 runs in 254 one-dayers at a brilliant average of 59.07 with 43 half-centuries and 62 fifties in the one-day format. The 33-year-old also has 3227 runs from 95 T20Is at a strike rate of 137.90. However, he is yet to slam a hundred in the T20 format of the sport and has the highest score of 94*. Kohli is the only player to average over 50 in all three formats and has slammed 70 international tons. Only Sachin Tendulkar (100) and Ricky Ponting (71) have registered more international hundreds than Kohli.

EARLY LIFE AND CAREER